Determinants of Child Sexual Abuse in Amhara Regional State: The Case of Debremarkos Town and Bahir Dar City, Northwest Ethiopia

Abstract

Child sexual abuse is becoming one of the tragic and sensitive global issues. It has been hidden in most parts of the world for several decades. Certainly, childhood sexual abuse is a subject that has received much attention in recent years. Despite the lack of accurate and well organized worldwide statistics on the prevalence of child sexual abuse, there is a general agreement among sociologists, social workers,  counselors, forensic psychologists, law enforcement detectives, medical examiners and other child protection professionals that the problem is common and serious particularly in cities. In Ethiopian where talking publicly about the issue, let alone conducting research, is considered as a taboo until recent years. This study is conducted to explore the causative factors for such abuse and the effect it brings on victims, their families and the society at large. Specifically the following objectives are addressed in this study: Describing the socio-economic characteristics of the victims and offenders ,Exploring the causative factors of sexual abuse in Bahirdar city and Debremarkos town ,Find out the effects of child sexual abuse in the study areas and Identifying policy gaps and make recommendations for advocacy and henceforth policy change. Qualitative and quantitative research approaches were used in this study. Specifically, household survey, key informant interviews and focus group discussions is used to collect data. The study finding reveled that Child sexual abuse is a current challenge to the protection of children in Ethiopia in general and study areas in particular, mostly affecting girls. The vice manifests itself in various ways, like sexual harassment, rape, bad touches, and use of bad language on children, child marriages, and exposure of children to pornography and commercial sexual exploitation of children. The various government structures still remain ill prepared and ill equipped to contend with the challenges. Many child victims have dropped out of school, others have been deliberately sent into marriage while others have found a life on the streets. The justice system for such children still remains unresponsive, riddled with corruption and ill facilitation. If anything is a priority, prevention of CSA should be put on the agenda of decision makers at international level, regional and national level so that this vice is reduced; otherwise, this may have far reaching consequences on the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals to health, literacy and poverty. The researcher forwarded the following major recommending remarks: Strengthen households economically so that they can meet the needs of their households. This should ensure that they are meeting the needs of their children both in and out of school. Strengthen the capacity of CBOs to increases ownership of the interventions activities and government to design programs to stem and mitigate the impact of child marriages and commercial sexual exploitation of children. There is need to identify positive norms, values and practices among traditional institutions and use them in the promotion of child protection Interventions against sexual abuse. Empower children to take informed decisions on their sexuality, right from childhood. Encourage sex education in homes and at schools so that children utilize all avenues for socialization to grow up to be assertive when CSA perpetrators advance them.